8049 - Beatles: Paul McCartney Signed Giclee Print by Bill Bernstein - 'Paul with Hofner' (20″ x 28″)

Beatles: Paul McCartney Signed Giclee Print by Bill Bernstein - 'Paul with Hofner' (20″ x 28″) Color 20 x 28 giclée print of Paul McCartney playing his Höfner violin bass during his 2002-2003 Driving World tour, photographed by Bill Bernstein and signed in the lower border in pencil by McCartney, "Paul McCartney," and by the photographer, "Bill Bernstein." Entitled 'Paul with Hofner,' the print centers on the instrument as much as the man. McCartney acquired his first Höfner 500/1 violin bass in Hamburg in the early 1960s, drawn to its light weight and symmetrical shape—a form that read the same flipped over for a left-handed player. Through the Beatles years the little violin-shaped bass became inseparable from his image, and he has kept returning to it on stage ever since. The bass in Bernstein's frame carries that same silhouette, played here under arena lights more than 40 years into its working life. The image appears on page 23 of Bernstein's book Each One Believing: Onstage, Off Stage and Backstage (Chronicle Books, 2004), and was later issued as a hand-signed Hahnemühle print through the Morrison Hotel Gallery. These prints were never a numbered edition. They were offered only through the traveling 'Each One Believing' exhibition, which moved among a small group of galleries—among them the Morrison Hotel Gallery and the San Francisco Art Exchange—from 2006 into 2007, and each was signed in pencil by both McCartney and Bernstein. Rather than a fixed run, the total is capped simply by the number of collectors who bought one during those brief shows, and because McCartney long ago stopped signing them, authorized signatures were only available for sale during that time period. Acquiring one was seldom immediate: each purchased sheet had to travel out afterward for both signatures, and per the consignor, this example was bought on the gallery tour but not delivered until roughly a year later. Of the assignment, Bernstein reflected, in part: "The opportunity to photograph McCartney's entire World Tour and to be given such astounding access has been a high point of my career." In very fine condition. https://www.paulmccartney.com/news/each-one-believing-the-tour